This article is more than 1 year old

Epson Stylus Photo R320 printer

What doesn't it do?

Epson Stylus Photo R320Review Epson's latest entry into the photo printer market helps fill the gap between its R800 and R200 models with an update of the R300. The Epson Stylus Photo R320 comes complete with a new, colour screen and memory card slots for 13 of the most popular card formats, including xD, SmartMedia, Memory Stick - Pro, Duo, Pro Duo and MagicGate - SD and miniSD cards, writes Doug Harman.

The R320's blend of features includes direct-print capability using its memory card slots; USB Direct Print and PictBridge compatibility; CD and DVD printing; and, to cap it all, stunning photo output that's well able to rival that of the R320's bigger sibling, the R800.

Six separate ink tanks house the printer's cyan, magenta, yellow, black and photo cyan and photo magenta primaries. Setup is fairly easy with all the printer's articulations for the feeder and delivery trays built into the curvy, grey and silver body. However, I had a few issues with the installation process. The driver failed to install completely the first time round and the second left me with odd, intermittent faults where the driver wouldn't load in Photoshop. Another, third installation later, I had cured these ills, but it meant it had taken me around three hours to go from opening the box to printing a proper photo.

That aside, the R320 struts its stuff well: a borderless, A4 photo-print using the printer's optimised 5760dpi output took around 13 minutes to drop onto the delivery tray.

The direct, computer-less printing is straightforward thanks to a neat but very small, 1.4in colour display that allows you to crop and print using a range of various layouts and styles. These are selected from an additional mono LCD data-readout below the colour screen and just above some simple, easy to use controls on the printer's top.

The attachment for handling inkjet-printable CDs and DVDs is a touch flimsy but works well enough, and to cap the ensemble, the memory card slots cans also be used to upload images to a connected computer.

Epson Stylus Photo R320

Verdict

Great photo output, including borderless printing, combined with a nice range of features including standalone operation and CD/DVD printing plus a great price all make the Epson Stylus Photo R320 a printer that must be on your 'to buy' list if you're in the game for new output device.

Review by
Pocket-Lint.co.uk

Epson Stylus Photo R320
 
Rating 90%
 
Pros Excellent photo print quality; good text output; fast printing.
 
Cons A small display; odd driver installation; doesn't come with a USB cable.
 
Price £150
 
More info The Epson R320 site

Recent reviews

HP Photosmart 385 compact printer
Alienware Aurora Star Wars Edition gaming PC
SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus USB/SD card
Scan 3XS Hoojum CUBIT 5 media centre system
OQO Model 01 handheld PC
Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
O2 XM music phone
Orange SPV M500 smart phone

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like